Month: July 2014

Lynda Garlick is such a beautiful embodiment of a Divine Soul. There was so much juicy stuff in her presentation, that I filled eight pages in my notebook. Lynda began by telling us her “story”. Her point to taking us on her life’s journey was to illustrate the “light” and “shadow” in all of our lives and how both play out to help expand our experience here in earth school. She further let us experience that we don’t need to judge our experiences as bad or good, big or small….. they just are and they are working behind the scenes to create a better life for us, if we will tune in and be aware of the lessons…..especially when we are given a “divine course correction”.

Lynda was named by her oldest sister that passed on into the dream of forever, just before Lynda was born. Lynda never met her sister but knows that her sweet sister walks this earth life beside her as an angel. I loved hearing this tender story because I also have an older sister, whom I have never met, but she has often been my guide and comforting angel.

Lynda was baptized into the LDS church at a young age. She remembers there being a young girl that she wanted to be friends with and she couldn’t go to her house unless she was of the same faith, so Lynda decided to be baptized. Through many other experiences she served a mission for the LDS church. She chose to be a servant to the people around her and to only teach what she knew was true in her heart. When she returned home she made the difficult decision on the drive home from being released from her mission to tell her clergy leader that she no longer wanted to be LDS. She loved her mission, loved serving, loved teaching others about love and happiness but didn’t feel that the LDS church is where she belonged and though it disappointed her family, she chose another path. Her clergy leader was very kind and her family has always been so supportive and loving of her choices in her life and she in return has always been supportive and loving of their choices.

Lynda ended up in college in the academic pursuit of Psychology. She loved learning about it and it seemed to just come easy and natural to her. Lynda wound up taking a job with a software company that was only going to be a short term job. She told herself it was just for a little bit until she found what she wanted….. her short term job turned into a 25 year career which allowed Lynda the freedom and means to go back to school and get even more degrees. Lynda loved the people she worked with and her favorite times were mentoring those peers around her. She worked her way up in the company and became very good in the accounting field, in which she spent her days. She was in a relationship at the time and also co- parenting 5 children, 4 of which she had been in the delivery room for their birth. Years into this relationship a life changing experience occurred. The children’s mom decided to leave their relationship and take the 5 children out of Lynda’s life. This devastated Lynda and she threw herself into her work, becoming a workaholic and numbing the pain of feeling she was “not enough”. The pain became unbearable and she “ran away” to another country in the disguise of her company’s photographer. At this point Lynda knew she was running away and numbing the pain and it finally took its toll on her health and she fell very ill.

During her leave of absence, Lynda got in touch with a tiny piece of her intuition and knew it was time to leave her job. She felt there was something more for her but didn’t know what that was just yet. She just knew she needed to leave and create space for something new to enter her life. She left her job and took up Zen with a Master that taught her to be still. Although, she learned to be still…. She still didn’t listen to her greater intuition and continued to stuff her grief deep down inside.

Months went by and she received a letter from the company she had worked with so diligently, for those many years. The letter was written in a lot of legal jargon, but she could tell by the tone of the letter that she was being blamed for something that was not good. When she went in to talk to the legal counsel at the company, she was told in no uncertain terms that they were about to destroy her life. She remembers having enough moxie to think…. “No! That’s my choice.” The company proceeded to use Lynda as a scapegoat and although there may have been a few T’s not crossed and I’s not dotted, she never did anything illegal and the company had been looking for a fall guy. This was yet another of “Divinity’s course corrections” and through a lengthy trial process and feeling like “whoever tells the best story and has the most resources will win.” Lynda was fined and sentenced to jail time.

Lynda sold everything she owned and wrote a check for the hefty fine and waited for her sentence to begin. As she waited each day for the dreaded knock on the door, she realized she was already putting herself in a prison of fear and through this observation she learned to be present and say, “In this moment, all is well.” She was sentenced to 90 days and jail became her monastery. She felt the friends and family that surrounded her spiritually and the stillness that she had learned, began to serve her as she felt her intuition grow. Lynda, told us that when you choose to see things in a spiritual space, then all of life is sacred. She asked Spirit to let her time in jail, “pass like a dream in the night” and even now it feels like so long ago and has faded from her memory. She was given many uplifting and spiritual books while serving her time. One thing Lynda realized is that she was a gift to many other women who would be carrying out their time in jail and would now have access to the wonderful books she was gifted while in her “monastery”. These books may help to shift their views on life and because she left the books in the library at the jail with love and hope for others, she had a knowing it was just another step in her spiritual path to help others find a better way.

After she was released from jail, she went to live with her mom and dad and created a small cocoon around the three of them for healing. Her mom was very sick and Lynda helped her mom transition gracefully into the next life of the forever dream. She was able to spend amazingly close and intimate time with her mom and through the process many people thought she actually worked at the hospital. This was a gift from Spirit for Lynda to be able to see herself in this kind of a role.

Through all of these experiences, Lynda can look back and see that her whole life was set up to be a midwife for the Holy, meaning, deliver a divine soul into the hands of Spirit. The experiences that may have been judged as “bad” have been as big a learning experience as the experiences that may have been judged as “good”. Lynda quotes from Genesis, “God made two great lights – the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.” (Notice that God didn’t say one was better than the other.) Lynda has truly used all experiences in her life as an opportunity for growth.

…And this is where the magic culminated!!

Lynda asked us all, “What if you became Radically Honest and Ruthlessly Real?” She explained this wasn’t about being “Brutally honest” or “Blunt”. Living a life that is radically honest, with a clear lens and ruthlessly real means that you drop down into your heart to “see” and act from your soul. This is about seeing and interacting with all around you reverently, sacredly, with genuine love, kindness and peace. She explained that we are not cultured to be honest and that is why it is difficult and even scary to think about living radically honest. She also expressed that “delivery” of your message is very important. Sometimes our lens gets dirty (this is usually colored by our “story”, our “history”, our “baggage”) and sometimes we are so attached to it, we have a tough time cleaning that lens and seeing through the pure love of the Divine. When we do see through the lens of the Divine (seeing others as God sees them), then our “delivery” of any message will be sacred and reverent and always delivered with love.

Lynda has a mantra that she lives by:

1- I say YES to all that has been, to all that is and to all that will be (lots of words for surrendering to divinity.)

2- Everyone and everything is sacred.

3- Love.

Lynda explained further that from living from this space she has been able to see “Light” and “Shadow” both as a gift. The contrast makes the beauty, she added. Lynda also shared some of her AMAZING black and white photography, she had personally taken and developed. She showed us how the photography played with the light and shadow for the contrast that made it so brilliantly magnificent. She used the photography as a metaphor and her advice was that you could acknowledge the emotion of either the “light” or the “shadow” experiences and not need to judge them. Most importantly, she told us, you don’t need to live in any emotion you are experiencing, it is a choice. Her journey to her self was scary and when she opened her heart to herself, she found harsh words and by being radically honest with a clear lens she was able to know what was true and what was not. She released what has not true and embraced the diving. Now, when Lynda finds an experience that might be defined as “shadow” she asks….. “how does the shadow serve me?” then she is able to release it “in that moment”. Also by being aware that this is just another story she is able to acknowledge her perfectness and know that everything is happening for her highest good. What a wonderful way to live!!

Over and over we hear that daily rituals are so key to the happiness we desire in this life. Lynda shared her daily ritual.

1- Prayer (communing with angels and guides) she expresses gratitude and acknowledges the giving and receiving process.

2- Meditation and stillness to find inner peace

3- Never leave the house without an intention.

Example. To see myself as whole.

Example. To be aware of others.

Lynda’s intention is to become a chaplain, in her words, “My intention to become a chaplain is not to judge someone’s theology, but rather to help them to understand it more fully. I have observed that when people experience life-altering events, theology and dogmas show up. It is then, we want to understand why we are suffering, and we tend to look back on the trajectory of our lives and question our choices. I want to be a part of those conversations, and processes.”

Our evening with Lynda was spectacular and we were honored to walk down this path with her as she shared her heart and soul. She is truly in touch with her Divinity and sees the sacred in all things. In my personal interactions with Lynda, I know her to be a compassionate listener, intuitive truth teller and an absolute gift to all that she touches. She embodies one of the final sentences of her autobiographical statement, which I was honored to read, it says: “Divinity’s heart is my heart.” May we all expand to share this wisdom through our experiences in life, whether they are “good” or “bad”…. “light” or “shadow” ….. it is our choice to find the sacred in them and celebrate our triumphs.

To contact Lynda for guidance on your spiritual path, you may email her at lbgarlick@gmail.comor her contact phone number is (801) 368-8649.

Wow! What a wonderful ride Lori Coombs Ames gave us last month at our Women’s Circle. Lori confessed that she wasn’t always a “health-nut”, in fact she grew up eating out of boxes and cans….. among these were Top Ramen, boxed cereal, sweets and fast food. What?? Our Lori?? She also confessed that she had never been challenged with a weight problem and was blessed with a high metabolism so she never worried about what she ate or being athletic. She shared that her first marriage had some real challenges for her to overcome; she was told she was overweight at 88 pounds and as she felt judged she began to judge others on their body image. She had to deal with an alcoholic husband as well as managing a high stress job. Through this journey she met her spiritual mentor, Vicki Clough and attended her Inner Child retreat where she learned that she was lovable and how to let go of her limiting beliefs. Lori’s journey led her to an exercise program in weight lifting and then yoga, where she felt a connection with Spirit through exercise. Then when she took a Pilates class, it was love at first class. She told us it was like weight lifting with the spirituality of yoga. Her pilates class became her respite from her stressful work environment and a year later she became an instructor.

Lori’s passion is to connect women with their bodies and empower them. As Lori’s passion for exercise grew so did her passion to put good things into her body as part of her new diligence to self-care and self-love. She found a deeper connection to source as she learned more and more about nutrition. This journey led her to a delicious “green lemonade” which she enjoys almost daily, spiritual Kabucha and even trying raw food diet for a while. Through this exploration she learned that conscious eating was the best answer for her. She found that real food contains a “life-force” and it becomes a part of who we are. She now grows most of her own food and prepares it with the intent that it will heal, nourish and have a loving relationship with her. Lori loves being a vegetarian.

Through this whole journey, Lori admits, she would not give up her sugar and that she was very defiant about this fact. She realized she had an addiction to sugar and that most of us may have the same addiction because it is a socially acceptable addiction and it doesn’t have the same stigma that an alcohol or drug addiction has. When she finally got “real” with herself and this addiction, she started to cut out the sugar and find alternatives. This was once again a choice to love herself. Her favorite substitutes are raw honey, maple syrup and dates. On a very important note, Lori also says she chooses to spend time with friends and family which may include food she wouldn’t normally choose but she has learned to always do her best, whatever that looks like and not get upset when it isn’t what would be her idea of a perfectly organic meal.

Lori now listens to women in our world and hears what her own negative self talk used to be. She says she is saddened by the huge emphasis that is put on body image and not enough emphasis on who we really are. It has become her passion to assist women to overcome this negativity and see the powerful beauty in who they truly are as a women. I share this same passion for empowering women with Lori.

Lori also shared the 5 Tibetan Rites with our group, which are exercises for healing, rejuvenation and longevity. Lori enjoys this as a moving meditation, as she was challenged by sitting still in the beginning of her meditation practice. In the book, The Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth, written by Peter Kelder, he describes this exercise program used by Tibetan monks to live long, vibrant and healthy lives. These exercises are a program for “youthing” instead of “aging” and Lori gave us the movements as well as alternative moves to work our way up to the original Rite.

Lori’s wonderful journey through her life has brought her a profound sense of well-being and her next step is becoming a certified nutrition coach. Lori currently teaches Pilates, the MELT method and Yamuna Foot Fitness. You can find her at Core Connection Pilates, 801-560-4645, 1393 South 1100 East, Salt Lake City, UT

She also recommended her favorite blogs for delicious and healthy food choices. Her recommendations are:

If you are interested in knowing what is really in the products/foods on the market check out Foodbabe.com

Lori gave us some “Food for Thought” which I posted on our Facebook Page in our Women’s Circle, feel free to check it out and you will learn even more about what Lori calls conscious eating.

Also, there was a request for the prayer that Lori says at the end of the 5 Rites, it is:

Hands at the 3rd eye-May I have eyes to see and ears to hear. May I be open to the signs and guidance of the Universe, my guides and angels and my own intuition.

Hands at the heart center-May I go into the world today with a kind and loving heart. May I treat all those I come in contact with love and compassion, including myself.

Hands at the root chakra (fingers down)- May I connect to Mother Earth, the Universe and all that is, on this plane and others.

We are one. Namaste’

I want to thank Lori for the amazing night she shared with us and the passion she has to be the change in the world. Her journey has blessed her as well as so many around her that she influences. We look forward to hearing more about her coaching business soon and all the new things on her horizon. We love you Lori!!!

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